By Nature, Imperfect
by JillDragon
Summary: Happily ever after' is a fantasy. In reality life, the universe, and how people relate to one another tend to be far more imperfect, as Starscream discovers. Set in Keaalu's 'Blue AU'.


**Author's Notes:** This is another fic set in Keaalu's 'Blue AU'. The fic takes place a decent amount of time after the events of _Warped_ so if you haven't read it or its awesome prequel, _Screaming Blue Murder_ yet, get to it! This fic does contain some spoilers, both for the previously mentioned fics and for stuff set in the future of the AU.

For the curious, _Ingenium imperfecta_ is a disease created by Keaalu who's affect resemble that of Parkinson's Disease and are similarly debilitating.

**Disclaimer:** The OCs Forceps and Spotweld, the AU setting, and this fic's premise all belong to Keaalu and are used here with her permission. Starscream and everyone and everything else belong to Hasbro (so please to be not sueing).

**Warnings:** Inuendo and crack!shippiness as well as serious issues of a medical nature.

* * *

It had been, Forceps thought as she stumbled through the door, an utterly wretched day. She still felt numb from the news she'd received. _It's the shock I suppose, I wonder if I'm due to break down and turn into a mess at any second like I've seen mechs do when they get this type of news._

She had spent the past stellar cycle telling herself that the subtle, annoying symptoms she's been experiencing were nothing, just a result of her heavy, hectic work schedule and a home-life that could politely be called 'interesting'. But it had gotten worse recently and the limb stiffness and tremors had begun to affect her ability to perform delicate surgeries. If there was one thing she hated it was not being able to do her job to what she _knew_ was the best of her abilities. So she had reluctantly, without telling anyone, made an appointment with a cortical-processor specialist in the next district over.

The female was glad that there was no one home for once. With the strange and rather noisy extended 'family' she'd managed to collect, things like _quiet_ and _solitude_ and even _sanity,_ which she had taken for granted in the past, now often seemed like illusions.

She didn't often indulge in high-grade, but she needed a cube to take the edge off the news and keep her mind from running aimless circles around her cranium. Normally she wasn't one to hide from her problems but there was something about the crushing 'inevitability' of what she had been told. As a surgeon she knew the exact implications of the diagnosis in every, painful detail, and for just a short while she wanted to _unknow_….just a little bit.

Forceps had just sat down and started sipping the high-grade when she heard an indistinct but familiar voice raised in irritation. Forewarned she didn't startle when the front door crashed open and a furious Starscream stormed in, wings hiked up and bristled and his optics burning with fury.

"Do you know what those mis-spawned little glitches at the station did to me?!" he snarled. He would have slammed the door but he caught Sepp's warning glower and thought the better of it. He stomped over, clearly looking for someone to rant at despite the 'go away, you annoying fragger' vibes she was practically radiating.

"It's bad enough that I have case work piled up to the ceiling and Hardline on my back, those little slaggers decided it would be entertaining to publically _humiliate_ me as well! He stalked over and jabbed a finger in her face, "And – AND to make things even better _Commander_ Thundercracker stopped me from null-raying the brats when I caught up with them. What's the point of being in a position of authority when you can't even punish someone properly?!" He scowled, "At least back with the Decepticons my underlings showed me the proper fear and respect!"

He threw his arms up into the air, "I HATE MY JOB!!!" he screeched a furious exclamation point.

He seemed to have blown himself out so Forceps decided it was safe to turn her audios back on. If Starscream had been waiting for a reaction out of her he clearly didn't care enough to try and drag it out of her because he immediately threw himself down on the couch beside her and seized a cube of high-grade.

"Yes, you can have one, thank you for asking," she told him dryly.

"You didn't say I couldn't," Starscream replied testily with a huff of air through his vents.

She snorted and didn't press the point; she knew the seeker was probably spoiling for a fight and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of winding her up as well.

In any event, he seemed content to sit there beside her and drink the energon, occasionally muttering imprecations under his breath.

As it turned out, one cube became two, then three, then five, after which neither of them cared enough to keep track. Somehow Starscream had ended up sitting sideways on her lap, one arm around her neck to keep himself from falling over, and she didn't mind enough to go to the effort of pushing him off. He was telling her a slightly confused (and rather dirty) story about an encounter Skyfire had during their exploration days with a rather amorous tentacled alien. "…And even after he got all the slime off, the big lunk was too embarrassed to talk about the mission for _orns_ afterwards," he finished with a cackle.

For some reason Sepp's rather buzzed cortex found this incredibly amusing as well, and she chuckled along with him.

The seeker seemed to lose interest in the story and he leaned on her shoulder, "You're a great female, Sepp," he murmured happily, "No one else would be good enough to listen to me or share their high-grade with me." He nuzzled her neck with a contented sigh.

That sent a tickly shiver up her spine, "Don't do that," she said, absent-mindedly nudging him away gently. He pouted visibly and she rolled her optics and began petting one of his wings in consolation which he seemed to enjoy very much, humming and purring with contentment as he snuggled more firmly against her shoulder.

"Sepp?" he asked softly, "What's wrong?"

"Wrong...I...Nothing. Nothing is wrong," her vocalizer stumbled over the words, and she was glad that the Seeker wasn't in a position where he could look her in the eye.

Starscream snorted, "Nothing. So that's why you've been avoiding Hardline and Spotweld and…everyone."

"Unlike you seekers who enjoying living in one big, noisy flock, I enjoy having some time to myself once in awhile," Forceps tried to force an air of belligerence.

Starscream shot her a scornful look, "No…I know you...you're hiding something from me…from everyone, I can tell." He gave her a too-cheerful smile, "It takes a liar to know a liar, m' dear surgeon."

It was too close to mark so she chose not to answer, knowing that she could wait him out.

Predictably Starscream got impatient with waiting, "Well…I can always sing to you to cheer you up," he said brightly, sitting up straighter "The squishies are pitiful, but once in awhile they make good music. There was this one bunch….Aycee-Deesee…or something - they had good music."

Forceps freely admitted that she'd had a bit too much to drink, but even in her hazy processor the equation of 'Starscream' plus 'music' inevitably equaled 'very bad'. "No that's alright," she said hastily.

"Aww, please?" he gave her an innocent, big-eyed look.

"No," she said more firmly, "I don't want my audios shattered thank you – and if you don't stop pouting like that I'll stop petting your wings."

"Oh _fine_," he grumbled, sounding remarkably like his young niece Footloose when she was given an ultimatum.

She was silent for a long moment, focusing only on running her fingers up and down the smooth surfaces of his wing. "I was diagnosed with _Ingenium imperfecta,"_ she said softly, not looking at the seeker. "I've suspected for awhile but it was only today that I received the confirmation I was looking for."

Uncharacteristically Starscream was silent, watching her.

Feeling that she had to explain, she continued, "_Ingenium imperfecta_ is a progressive, degenerative neural disorder," she recited the relevant section from the Medical Competium from memory, trying to be detached and look at this from a logical, scientific standpoint. It was harder than she expected. "It affects –"

"I know what it does," Starscream interrupted her, "I've heard of it before - seen it too." He gave her a curious look, "Why didn't you tell Hardline? He's your lover after all, he just _might_ have an interest," the Seeker's voice was heavy with sarcasm.

Sepp sighed heavily, "I know…I just didn't want him to fuss. He…well he tends to take things like this very hard."

"A cure…." Starscream muttered, sounding as if he were talking to himself.

"There isn't one," she said flatly, "It can be…managed to some extent…sometimes, but there's no cure."

"There will be one," Starscream said. He looked her straight in the optics, a strange, fiercely-obsessive light burning in his red optics, suddenly looking much more sober than he had been a breem ago, "I will _find_ one if I have to Sepp," he growled, "I will find one for you." He looked away, twitching his wings uneasily. "I _won't_ sit by and loose another one I care for," he ground out between gritted teeth, "Not after Skyfire."

"Skyfire isn't dead," she reminded him, worried about what this sudden change in behavior meant. Being reminded about Skyfire tended to bring out the worst in the Seeker. _If he goes into one of his homicidally-insane rages I'm going to pump him so full of sedatives he'll take a joor to straighten out_, she thought grimly.

"Might as well be, for all the good it does me," he muttered morosely. But he didn't seem inclined to pursue it beyond there and he got up and started fumbling around for another cube of high-grade.

"Ah, I think you've had enough energon," Sepp said pulling him away. A wave of disorientation struck her and she had to grab onto him for support, making them both flop back onto the couch, "Make that both of us, I think," she muttered.

"That's a load of slag," Starscream whined, "If we're still sober enough to be maudlin then we clearly haven't had enough!"

"You might be right," Forceps conceded grudgingly, "But I don't think it's worth the pain we'll be having tomorrow."

"Hmph!" He wiggled around so that he was in her lap again, snuggling into her shoulder. He looked disturbingly peaceful and innocent lying curled up there. Too innocent.

This was born out by the sudden, sly glint in his optics, "Mmmm, it's not often I get to sit in an attractive female's lap," he told her blithely.

Sepp snorted, "Now who's talking slag? I'm about as attractive as an engine block and you know it, you winged nuisance. Besides, aren't I the wrong gender for you to be making eyes at?"

"Pah, you're _very_ good to look at," Starscream insisted, wiggling his optic ridges in a rather suggestive manner, "Nice and strong and curvy – lots of hold onto. Who wants a silly little stick of a femme like that useless pink bint Prime has hanging off his arm?" he made a face, "No taste at all, but then he_ is_ an Autobot so what do you expect? As for the other bit…" he shrugged, "Mech, female, it doesn't matter to me. 'S the package and the processor that's in it that interests me."

"Ah, so you like big, _intelligent_…partners," Sepp nodded wisely, "I was worried for Hardline's sake for a nano-klik." She laughed at the disgusted expression that crossed Starscream's face.

"It's not funny," he pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. "You know, Sepp," he said, a wistful expression on his faceplates that made her feel vaguely uncomfortable, "If Hardline didn't have you, I might have wanted you for mine," he said, pressing his lean body closer to hers, arms curling around her shoulders to embrace her possessively for heartbeat. Then he withdrew.

She snorted, trying to push away the sudden wash of feelings it brought on, "What? Wouldn't I get a choice in this matter?"

"Psh," Starscream waved her objection away, "Who in their right mind _wouldn't_ want to partner with me? A handsome, clever, witty flier who can keep you up all night with –"

Forceps pressed a finger to his lips to prevent him from going on, "Shut up, Scarlet," she said firmly. And then she kissed him.

***  
It was several hours later when a tired Spotweld arrived home after his shift in Accident and Emergency. Coming in the front entry he was greeted with an unusual sight.

Starscream and Forceps were curled up together on the couch, the Seeker's head tucked firmly under the female's chin and she had slung an arm around him, holding him close. Even in sleep there was a deep frown etched on the female's face and there was an air of tension around Starscream that he always seemed to carry with him, waking or sleeping.

Spotweld smiled sadly and, moving carefully to avoid waking them, he tucked a thermal blanket around them and silently tiptoed out.


End file.
